East Palo Alto youths get lessons in legal graffiti, community respect

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Daniel Nava, 17, shows one the tattoos he designed on Tuesday, March 24, 2009, in East Palo Alto. Nava, a senior at Redwood High School, is one of a group of East Palo Alto youth learning the artistic principles behind legal graffiti as part of a joint effort between a local nonprofit and the East Palo Alto police department. They will ultimately produce wall-sized works. (Joshua Melvin/Daily News)

A group of youth work on drawings Tuesday, March 24, 2009, in East Palo Alto. The children are learning the artistic principles behind legal graffiti as part of a joint effort between a local nonprofit and the East Palo Alto police department. They will ultimately produce wall-sized works. (Joshua Melvin/Daily News)

A group of youth work on drawings Tuesday, March 24, 2009, in East Palo Alto. The children are learning the artistic principles behind legal graffiti as part of a joint effort between a local nonprofit and the East Palo Alto police department. They will ultimately produce wall-sized works. (Joshua Melvin/Daily News)

Daniel Nava, 17, works on a drawing Tuesday, March 24, 2009, in East Palo Alto. Nava, a senior at Redwood High School, is one of a group of East Palo Alto youth learning the artistic principles behind legal graffiti as part of a joint effort between a local nonprofit and the East Palo Alto police department. The children will ultimately produce wall-sized works. (Joshua Melvin/Daily News)

Daniel Nava had been part of the graffiti scene for 10 years when he got caught tagging in San Jose last summer.

Today, the 17-year-old East Palo Alto resident’s skills are sharper than ever, but he says he learned his lesson about breaking the law.

“You can still paint what it is you like to paint without getting in trouble,” Daniel told two East Palo Alto police captains and other students in the city’s Graffiti Art Project last week. “All you have to do is ask for permission.”

Daniel and about 20 other youths are participating in the 12-week program run as a partnership between the Mural Music & Arts Project and the East Palo Alto Police Department with funding the police department received from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. The class meets Tuesdays from 4 to 6 p.m. at Belle Haven Elementary School in Menlo Park.

Some of the youths joined the program, which debuted with a shorter pilot session last fall, to do their community service hours after getting caught for crimes. Others are just looking for a fun after-school activity.

All have an interest in improving their artistic abilities and creating better graffiti-style paintings and drawings.

“We’re pretty proud of you guys — you’ve come a long way,” East Palo Alto police Capt. John Chalmers told the students last week. “You’re not only putting things down on paper, but, judging from this class, you’re putting things in your mind.”

The weekly lessons focus on everything from letter forms to blending to perspective, with an overarching theme of community and self-empowerment, said Gaelen Smith, 25, the program’s head teacher. Some, like Daniel, are already accomplished graffiti artists, while others are trying their hand at the medium for the first time.

“We broke graffiti down into a way of looking at letter forms … as a kind of typography in a way that expresses the kids’ personality,” Smith said.

“What’s important is not that they become good at graffiti, but that they become confident in themselves as artists,” he added.

The program is getting some youths more excited than traditional art classes would, said Sonya Clark-Herrera, executive director for the Mural Music & Arts Project, a nonprofit that has served 500 kids and created 50 murals since its 2001 launch in East Palo Alto.

“While we’re trying to prevent graffiti, we don’t want to eliminate it as an art form,” Clark-Herrera said. “You just couldn’t ask for something they’re more interested in learning to do — they’ve been filling up sketchbooks. I’ve run out of sketchbooks.”

In addition to teaching artistic techniques, the program aims to educate participants about “how to respect others who do this artwork, public and private property and themselves,” Clark-Herrera said.

Toyita Martinez, 16, said her art has improved so much during the program that she sold some of her pieces.

But Toyita said she appreciates the personal attention she gets from Clark-Herrera and other adults more than the boost to her technique.

“I never had a mentor,” she said.

Daniel, who was working on an elaborate drawing of an Aztec warrior last week, said he will begin studying sound arts at Ex’pression College for Digital Arts in Emeryville next fall. He then hopes to use his musical talent to make money so he can fund a similar arts program for kids.

“I used to say, ‘Forget about the system. I’m just going to do what I want to do,'” Daniel said. “I came to this program and found out there’s certain rules to graffiti.”

The students’ work will be on display at a closing ceremony and the Mural Music & Arts Project open house May 9.

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